Two charts caught my eye during the last two days. From a statistical viewpoint, both show extreme events.

The first chart shows monthly temperature anomalies (deviance from long term mean) for 117 years worth of temperature data for the U.S. Since march, this year has been the hottest on record, and not by a slim margin. Read the full post at newscientist.com

Photo by newscientist.org / NOAA

The second chart relates to arctic sea ice extent. The spring did not start out in an extreme way. There was a comparatively large area covered by sea ice in April / May. The area shrunk, however, and since a couple of days, the areal extent of sea ice compared to this time in previous years, is the smallest. The full post with more charts is available at realclimate.org